When it comes to judicial nominees, especially nominees to the Supreme Court, you might think that the only thing that matters -- the thing that trumps all other considerations -- is whether the nominee is for or against legalized abortions.

Many people are too young to realize that there was never a federal ban against abortions before Roe v. Wade created a "Constitutional right" to abortion out of thin air. Before that, the federal government had nothing to say about the subject and the various states had a variety of laws regulating abortions.

Political hype has long since drowned out the truth on this subject, as on so many other subjects.

What is even more dangerous than this political fixation on abortion is the underlying notion that judicial nominees are to be confirmed or voted down on the basis of how they might rule on particular policy issues.

The Roe v. Wade decision stands as the most divisive, painful, and controversial judicial decision in the nation's history. It was the beginning of national policy that abruptly terminated an ongoing debate that might have--if the Supreme Court had not intervened--ended in a compromise that would not have polarized the country.

As it is, the ruling took away that possibility by judicial fiat. It was a revelation for the Liberal Left. With Roe, they found a way of foisting their morality on everyone else (they said it was for Women's Rights, but now the same technique is being used to force Gay marriage on a population that is not ready to accept it.

These are the kind of morality laws we very much could have done without as a nation. The toxic side-effects of that judicial ruling still reverberate 30+ years later, and have resulted in a nation perpetually wounded. Torn apart over abortion--and wounded further by the judicial decisions about gay marriage.

If only...if only we had not had the moral police of the Left dictating to Americans about what they should believe. If only the American fondness for individual rights--both for and against abortion; for and against Gay marriage--had been allowed to play out and one side's beliefs not forced down the throat of the equally principled other side....